Monday, September 30, 2002
Rafe’s Rants return! - THE COMMENTARY
By Joseph Planta
VANCOUVER -- Rafe Mair’s got a new book out. Like his previous best-selling tome Rants, Raves and Recollections, Still Ranting is too a collection of essays and columns written by British Columbia’s premiere political commentator. The subjects of his pieces are not just the mundane and dry political stuff like constitutional or electoral reform, or ‘uniting the right.’ Sure that stuff is in there, but there are also some interesting pieces on some of the other subjects that make Rafe tick, and makes him a most sought after voice in this country today.
His previous book started with an interesting piece where he looks at his life, and the fact he’s been a sort of late-bloomer in life. (His broadcasting career really took off in his mid-’50s, as did he begin to write prolifically.) In Still Ranting his opening piece is all about how at the age of 70, he’s finding himself “drifting left”. The voice of constitutional reform, who’s also called for BC separation and who’s supported Reform and the Canadian Alliance, is finding himself sympathetic to the voices of the left, and becoming, more and more, an unabashed environmentalist.
Rafe Mair is not a neo-conservative nut, like those you see in that Albertan mag The Report. He’s not even as right-wing as his regular fill-in Peter Warren. No, Rafe Mair, though perceived as one, is actually one of the more pragmatic voices around. He’s a rabid environmentalist who’s got the scars to prove it. He helped save the Skagit river in this province, he helped stop the gravel pit development here in the Lower Mainland, and his on-going battle against the provincial government over the lifting of the salmon farming moratorium has gained him much notoriety. On social issues like homosexuality, Rafe is pragmatic again. He states that though he doesn’t approve of the lifestyle, the teachings of Christ have taught him to love the homosexual as his neighbour.
I’ve long admired Rafe Mair. He’s been a voice that people listen to, not because they necessarily agree with him. Rather, they listen to Rafe’s daily pronouncements on his CKNW radio show because he is Rafe Mair. A former lawyer, politician, cabinet minister and columnist, Rafe Mair’s been heard to for nearly 30 years in this province’s, and this country’s media.
His boycott, earlier this year, of the Asper newspapers, inspired me in this space to call for my own boycott. At the house, we’ve cancelled our subscriptions to the Vancouver Sun, The Province, and the National Post, because I agreed with Rafe that the CanWest Global company was choking of democracy and free speech with the firing of Russell Mills and the suspension of Gordon Gibson. In an e-mail I got from him last week, Mair notes that he believes the Asper’s have gotten the message and that he himself has been reading the CanWest papers again.
One of the pieces I found particularly good, and much needed having studied British Columbian history at a post-secondary institution, is the lengthy piece entitled “The Life and Death of the Socreds.” Himself, a former cabinet minister in the Bill Bennett government, Mair has done a hell of a job recounting the rise and fall of the Social Credit party in this province. Mair, as a slight participant, narrates the rise of Social Credit with W.A.C. Bennett, through to the governments of Bill Bennett, and the party’s decline with Bill Vander Zalm.
Still Ranting is an interesting book. It’s got a piece on Tiger Woods to one on Rafe’s fond love of London. There’s a piece on his affection for books, and another on his admiration for former British prime minister John Major. (Who, interestingly enough, confirmed this past weekend that he had a “shameful” four year affair with a fellow cabinet colleague.) This book is eclectic in its topics and thoroughly entertaining. Rafe Mair challenges the norms, sticking a proverbial stick in every wasp’s nest he comes across. Rafe’s rants make British Columbians and Canadians alike more informed. And we’re the better for it.
Still Ranting is published by Whitecap Books and sells for $19.95.
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An archive of Joseph Planta's previous columns can be found by clicking HERE .